SDMA director to take art museum post in Seattle

San Diego 
Derrick Cartwright, who became director of the San Diego Museum of Art in 2004, is leaving to head the Seattle Art Museum. He will become its director in the fall.

He succeeds Mimi Gates, who led the Seattle Art Museum for 15 years and is retiring at the end of June. The San Diego Museum of Art will name an acting director, board president Dr. Ken Widder said, and has formed a committee of board members to decide who will serve in that capacity while the institution does a national search for a new leader.

“This is bittersweet,” Widder said. “Derrick has been – and is – loved at the museum. But it was clear, being as successful as he was a director, it was not a question of if he might leave but when, in order to lead a larger institution. He's headed for a great position.”

Before coming to San Diego, Cartwright had directed the Musee d'Art Américain Giverny in France (1998-2000) and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (2001-04). At the SDMA, as at these institutions, Cartwright put an emphasis on exhibitions that incorporated new scholarship but also had popular appeal.

He worked toward generating exhibitions and bringing traveling shows that could heighten awareness of the permanent collection, such as “Goya's Portraits” (2006) and “Eleanor Antin: Making History” (2008). He also broadened the range of art being showcased at the museum; the current “Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form” (through January 2010) is an example.

Cartwright's departure will not disrupt programming at the museum, said Julia Marciari Alexander, its deputy director for curatorial affairs. Exhibitions are planned through 2010 and into 2011.